Pet visualization of amyloid-associated neuroinflammation in the brain

Abstract

The present invention relate to a method for monitoring a response to a therapy on a mammal having a neurodegenerative or neuroinflammatory disorder. According to a preferred embodiment, the method comprising the steps of:a) imaging the mammal using a radio-labeled peripheral benzodiazepine receptor ligand;b) administrating in the mammal at least one anti-amyloid or anti-neuroinflammatory agent;c) imaging the mammal of step b) using a radio-labeled peripheral benzodiazepine receptor ligand; andd) detecting the level of CNS neuroinflammation by the signals from the radio-labeled peripheral benzodiazepine receptor ligand.

Description

[0001]The present application claims priority from the U.S. provisional application No. U.S. 60 / 906183, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to a longitudinal, quantitative assessment of neuroinflammation and anti-amyloid treatment in a subject with diseases associated with aggregated amyloid, especially Alzheimer's disease, enabled by PET.BACKGROUND ART[0003]The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) does not become definite unless neuropathologists examine the autopsied brain and score AD-characteristic amyloid lesions, which are known as senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles and mechanistically implicated in neurodegenerative processes. Meanwhile, attempts to noninvasively visualize amyloid deposition in human brains using positron emission tomography (PET) have been made by developing imaging agents capable of reacting with amyloid fibrils (Sair et al., 2004; Nichols et al., 2006), a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]While improvements of both detection instrument and imaging agent to increase sensitivity of these modalities are ongoing, visualization of amyloid-associated pathologies in mice by PET would open a new avenue for monitoring dynamic status of amyloid deposition in living brains with minimal interference. Additional major benefit

Problems solved by technology

In addition, notable accumulation of this and other amyloid tracers in some amyloid-unrelated regions of human brains (Klunk et al., 2004; Shoghi-Jadid et al., 2002; Verhoeff et al., 2004) might arouse controversy over the specificity of this imaging technique for neurodegenerative pathologies.

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